Barclays sees surprise Seegers exit

On a day of upheaval in Britain's banking sector, Barclays said it was splitting up GRCB and that Seegers had resigned as a director and would leave the bank after a handover period.

Britain's second biggest bank also said its pretax profit in the third quarter was consistent with the run rate for the first half of the year. It will release its results on Tuesday.

Barclays said it wanted to put commercial banking alongside Barclays Capital, as corporate customers are increasingly using more investment banking products. That shift removed much of Seegers' role.

Seegers, a Dutchman married to Kartika Sukarno, the daughter of the late President Sukarno of Indonesia, joined Barclays in July 2006 as chief executive of Global Retail and Commercial Banking (GRCB).

He added almost 20 million new customers by building up in Spain, Italy and elsewhere, and entering four new markets -- India, Pakistan, Russia and Indonesia.

Barclays paid almost 12 million pounds to poach him from U.S. bank Citigroup , where he had spent 17 years, including as head of retail operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Barclays declined to comment on how much Seegers, 50, will receive on leaving. He is likely to get at least get his annual basic salary of 700,000 pounds. He earned 2 million pounds in 2007, including bonus.

Antony Jenkins will head a new unit called global retail banking, including UK retail banking, Barclaycard and retail operations in western Europe and emerging markets. Jenkins is currently CEO of Barclaycard.

Barclays President Bob Diamond will head a new corporate and investment banking group, which will add commercial banking to the Barclays Capital and Barclays Wealth units he already heads.